Egg prices are back on the rise as a devastating bird flu outbreak and swelling consumer demand eats into supply.
Wholesale egg prices surpassed about $3 per dozen in August, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, up from the usual $1 to $2 range. Retail egg prices were up 19% in August compared to last year, according to the latest Consumer Price Index data, while the broader grocery category increased only 1%.
highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, has forced egg supplies to be “less robust than normal.” At the same time, U.S. sales have jumped to levels not seen since the pandemic.
Despite the price fluctuations, consumers continue to buy eggs — and more of them, as of the last few months. August egg sales were up more than 5% compared to 2023, and producers sold 237 million eggs in the most recent four-week period. “We haven’t seen that number since the first year of COVID,” he said, when sales soared as consumers stocked up on staples including eggs and toilet paper.
As domestic demand stays strong, other countries are also buying more U.S. eggs. According to the U.S. Egg Export Council, total exports for the first four months of the year increased by 22% to 63.5 million dozen eggs, though values were down 22%.
Demand is expected to rise further during the fall and winter months with the holiday baking season entering full swing. That could further pressure the commercial egg supply, especially as bird flu also spreads more easily in colder climates.
So you’re rejecting verifiable and well known facts to appease your feelings? Cool.
This is called inflation. Every company ever has done this. Prices are increased explicitly to reduce demand. If they were to lower the prices and take a loss when there’s already no supply, they’d go out of business. Every company adjusts the price of their goods based on demand.
If you’re not happy about it, don’t buy the product. Or, buy products that are already priced at the value they offer. I’ve been paying over $5 for eggs for over ten years. The prices have not changed. Paying a dollar for a dozen eggs is absolutely ridiculous. Finding out that people were pissed because an egg was costing in excess of a dime or two is something I’m still struggling to come to terms with.
If you want to go on about corporate greed in agriculture, you should be looking at the beef and pork producers. The entire industry is a literal organized crime ring run by four companies using a shared database of sales and profits to push prices up in unison.
Are these those verifiable and well known facts to appease your feelings? Cool.
Yes. I don’t understand your question. Are you not aware of what facts are?
Ok good, then we agree they’re seeing record profits and should not be raising prices.
No. Because I have a basic understanding of economics and business operations, it depends.
If you could show me the revenue, profits, sales, investments, and salaries for a company and put their finances in context with the entire industry and external factors, then I could form some opinion about that company or the industry as a whole.
Egg producers on the west coast had to slaughter over four million hens due to bird flu. Taking this single event as it is, it would suggest that the wholesale cost of eggs on the west coast would decrease while the east coast would see prices increase. Because the overall supply of eggs decreased and, as its been reported, the demand has increased, retail prices went up. This price increase is due to the need to acquire eggs from other locations and juggling the supply chain. When dealing with unknown economic forecasts, due to bird flu or hurricanes or forrest fires or covid, an intelligent CFO would increase prices to prepare for a downturn in sales. Then, when they have too much stock, they could sell the product cheaper to get rid of it. If it turns out that there’s a sustained economic stress, they’ve banked some cash to continue operations - employing staff. They might even hoard capital to make investments. These investments could be for needless CEO bonuses, they could be for union pensions, they could be for expanding infrastructure, or buying other failing companies.
“Record profits”, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. How they acquired those profits and what they do with them is what’s to be judged.
See, the problem here is…
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kroger-hiked-milk-egg-prices-205327114.html
Kinda. That’s an additional problem caused by resellers. This topic is about farmers and whole sale prices and consumer demand. What you’ve linked to is not inflation but corporate greed.
Two different subjects.
Edit: Man, people are so angry about “____” that they completely ignore the facts presented to them. It’s incredible. I can’t understand that after all these years people still put their feelings before facts. I would have thought the world would have collectively learned this lesson by now.
Corporate greed is one of the leading causes of what we refer to as “inflation” i.e. prices going up. You can’t really seperate the two
Well, that’s entirely incorrect. You can make up all the words you want but those words already exist and have definitions.
Corporate greed and inflation could not be more separate from each other. At least apples and oranges are both fruits.
Honestly, it’s difficult for me to understand how you could compare the two. I’d like to hear your thought process.